The use of masking tape for painting straight lines is frequently essential. Masking tape is useful when painting moldings or surfaces that approach moldings, such as when painting the frames around window panes or when painting window frames or door frames where they meet walls. It is also necessary to paint moldings at the tops or bottoms of walls as well as numerous other situations where it is desired to paint adjacent to but not onto a portion of the surface or simply to paint a straight line.
One very satisfactory way to accomplish such a result is to use masking tape. Masking tape is well known, and it is a pressure-sensitive tape that is only mildly adhesive so that it can be removed without defacing a surface, and it is also usually impervious to paint.
Masking tape is usually applied by stripping a piece from a roll that is approximately the correct length and then holding it between the hands and maneuvering it to lie on a line immediately adjacent to the molding or wall to be painted, or if it is desired simply to paint a straight line, maneuvering it to lie on that line. Problems are frequently encountered in holding the tape so that it is applied on a straight line across its entire length; it frequently sticks to itself or to other objects where it is not desired to have the tape; and applying tape by such manner is limited to lengths of tape not in excess of the reach of the person who is applying it. The longer the piece of tape to be applied, the more difficult its application and the less likely that it will be applied as desired: i.e., in a straight line immediately adjacent to the surface to be painted and completely protecting the surface to be protected.
Another problem in the use of masking tape is applying it to protect a carpet when the baseboard at the bottom of a wall is to be painted. It is desired to fix the masking tape to the base of the carpet and to apply it so that it holds the nap of the carpet away from the wall so that a paint brush can be used at the bottom of the baseboard. Applying long pieces of masking tape in such a situation is so difficult that it is rarely even attempted.